Please help support the site by donating at the link below.https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=8ZRU34U47BESW
C132 isn't causing that issue with the sticks and the controller will work fine with it missing. You can put anything from 10uF to 22uF there. The only way for the sticks to do that is if you shorted all 4 of the analog lines to ground, or the more likely cause, have no power going to the sticks. Best guess from the images is a short on the one solder joint there touching the ground plane, the one that has 3 times the solder of the others on it. Resolder and clean that one up and retest.
thank you a million for maintaining this thread! Will try and come back!
Voltage at POTs on the stick should be 1.8v on the outside lead, ~0.9v on the middle lead and 0v (GND) on the other outside lead. The traces for the LSX, RSX and AN+ voltage are on the top layer, so you could have pulled the plating out of the holes and now they aren't making connection on top to the leads. Jumper wire from one of the the left stick V spots to one of the right stick V spots, doesn't matter which, and see what happens.
That wire could be shorted on the ground plane at the right stick there from the looks of it. It's not going to work great even if you get that fixed, as you've also ripped J3 off the board there.
DB38 is just the test point there to the left. Large component is a 4.7uF Cap (6.3v or more),Smaller ones, left is a 1uF Cap (4v or more), right is a 1k Resistor. Resistor is necessary or the LSY will not work, the Caps are optional and the uF values aren't really critical.